HAWKAAAAAAAH
Gah, I can't do the Fandom March Madness thing. I LOVE the positive glee-wave of the campaigning, with everybody talking about what's great about the characters they love. But beyond that... if the bracket is between two characters I love, then it's painful to choose (I fail so hard at choosing! I love a lot of people! Why does fandom always want to make me choose?). And if I DO have a strong preference, then I get irrationally rageful if my favorite loses, because SOMETIMES PEOPLE ARE WRONG ON THE INTERNET AND IT IS UPSETTING. I mean. THE RADIANT AERYN SUN, PEOPLE. HOW IS SHE NOT MORE AWESOME THAN MOST OTHER CHARACTERS COMBINED? Sigh.
So yeah. I love that people get so excited about it, but I, personally, can't do it. /o\ *smooshes all the great characters together on one massive Podium of Awesome*
ANYWAY. Emerald City Comicon was this weekend! It was super-fun! I didn't go to any panels or anything, I just mainly wandered around the exhibitor hall and looked at all the shiny things. I had planned to buy some comics but there were just too many; it was overwhelming and mostly I just kind of wanted to roll around in them. Hee. I did make a point of stopping by Colleen Coover's table, because she is brilliant and delightful (and now I totally want to read this, wow), and her commissions were too expensive for my very limited funds but it was fun to tell her how much I enjoy her work anyway; and Ma Noir and Sonia both got books signed by Greg Rucka, and he was SO NICE, and he wrote "Believe in her" inside Sonia's Wonder Woman trade, and that just gives me chills and warm-fuzzies all at once. If there is a better sentiment to apply to Wonder Woman, I'm not sure what it is. I did buy a couple of prints from an artist named Justin Orr, including this one:
Birds Of Prey by ~jusscope on deviantART
HOW AWESOME IS THAT? I mean, even just Babs' EYEBROWS make me really happy. And I love how all four of them look sexy and totally kick-ass without being stereotypically cheesecake-y. I just keep staring and staring at it and I love it more all the time. (I will say that the whole thing is slightly tainted for me by the fact that on his deviantart site, the artist refers to Zinda as "Lady Black C*#k"; clearly, I am all for juvenile humor, but in certain contexts, you know? Meh. And I was so pleased that Zinda was included in this drawing, and she would kick that guy's ass back to the 40s for disrespecting her or, for that matter, the Blackhawks. So that's kind of a bummer. But I still love the picture.)
I love that about Comicon, especially with the artist/writer type people, who don't generally get as much attention as the actors; just being able to tell someone to his/her face that you think their work is great is a really cool thing.
We also waited in a surprisingly long (and disorganized) line to get Sean Patrick Flanery to sign my Lone Hero DVD. It was totally worth it! Honestly, I felt a little bit bad for reminding SPF about this particular movie, since I'm sure it is not a career highlight for him. But I'd talked it over with Ma Noir and Sonia beforehand and we'd agreed that I could honestly say both "I was a fan of yours when you were Young Indiana Jones, so I was happy when you showed up in this movie" (true!) and also "it looked like a lot of fun to make" (also true!). So we finally get up to where he was (after some confusion wherein I actually kind of had no choice but to tell Norman Reedus that we weren't so much interested in his autograph--I'M SORRY, NORMAN REEDUS, I'M SURE YOU'RE A LOVELY MAN, I JUST DIDN'T WANT TO SPEND ANOTHER $20, and he was very cool about it), and I plunked the DVD down in front of him and he goes, while he's signing, "Can I just tell you that Lou Diamond Phillips is one of the coolest guys ever?" AWWWW. I... did not have that impression of Lou Diamond Phillips! But I guess I was wrong! So that was cute. And then we told him we were fans of Hugh Dillon's, and asked what it was like working with him. And he's like, "Who?" and then, after we clarified a bit, "Oh, the guy from the band!" HEE. "Yeah, he was great--he totally got me into that band." AWWWWWWWW. And then Ma Noir (I think) asked him if he liked riding in the tiny train, and he was like, "YES. I used to just ride that thing around at lunch, just sitting there, eating a sandwich [*mimes sandwich-eating*]." And we laughed, and he was like, "NO I'M SERIOUS. I loved that thing! It went all the way around the set!" HEEEE. So it was a tiny bit awkward but honestly he was SO NICE, and enthusiastic, and just seemed to generally be enjoying the ride (no pun intended), which is such a nice thing in a convention setting. I know that actors get really sick of conventions and I completely understand that, but it's always fun to talk to people who are in a place to embrace the experience, and Sean Patrick Flanery definitely seemed to be in that camp. So it was delightful! I have warm-fuzzy feelings about him now! It's hard not to like a guy who appreciates the joy of the tiny train!
AND Sonia was dressed up as (the most adorable) Wonder Girl (ever), so watching her get stopped for photos and pose with other adorably-dressed fans was ALSO really fun. So all in all it was a very successful Comicon experience!
And then yesterday morning I stopped to get coffee on the way to the zoo with sdwolfpup and the ridiculously adorable Puplet (Puplet LOVES THE ZOO, it is so cute! his little flaily arms! his excited monkey noises! ♥ ♥ ♥), and the barista--who's worked there for a couple of years, so I see her every month or two, though I'm by no means a regular--is just SO SWEET, and cheerful and friendly, and I know that's her job, but it still honestly makes my day every time I drive through there. So between that and the con, it was a weekend of small, enthusiastic moments of connection with near-strangers (interspersed with quality time with much-loved friends, of course, which is a gift beyond measure), and I was struck again by the power of that, just being interested in someone else, and having the confidence to reach out, even just for 10 seconds (I'm generally quite good at the interest part, but not so much at the confidence part). But what a lovely thing to be able to do for people; I'm resolved again to do more of it. For various reasons, I haven't been in a good reaching-out place for quite a while, and recently I kind of feel like I've found my center again; it's a good feeling, and I hope I can hold on to it.
So yeah. I love that people get so excited about it, but I, personally, can't do it. /o\ *smooshes all the great characters together on one massive Podium of Awesome*
ANYWAY. Emerald City Comicon was this weekend! It was super-fun! I didn't go to any panels or anything, I just mainly wandered around the exhibitor hall and looked at all the shiny things. I had planned to buy some comics but there were just too many; it was overwhelming and mostly I just kind of wanted to roll around in them. Hee. I did make a point of stopping by Colleen Coover's table, because she is brilliant and delightful (and now I totally want to read this, wow), and her commissions were too expensive for my very limited funds but it was fun to tell her how much I enjoy her work anyway; and Ma Noir and Sonia both got books signed by Greg Rucka, and he was SO NICE, and he wrote "Believe in her" inside Sonia's Wonder Woman trade, and that just gives me chills and warm-fuzzies all at once. If there is a better sentiment to apply to Wonder Woman, I'm not sure what it is. I did buy a couple of prints from an artist named Justin Orr, including this one:
Birds Of Prey by ~jusscope on deviantART
HOW AWESOME IS THAT? I mean, even just Babs' EYEBROWS make me really happy. And I love how all four of them look sexy and totally kick-ass without being stereotypically cheesecake-y. I just keep staring and staring at it and I love it more all the time. (I will say that the whole thing is slightly tainted for me by the fact that on his deviantart site, the artist refers to Zinda as "Lady Black C*#k"; clearly, I am all for juvenile humor, but in certain contexts, you know? Meh. And I was so pleased that Zinda was included in this drawing, and she would kick that guy's ass back to the 40s for disrespecting her or, for that matter, the Blackhawks. So that's kind of a bummer. But I still love the picture.)
I love that about Comicon, especially with the artist/writer type people, who don't generally get as much attention as the actors; just being able to tell someone to his/her face that you think their work is great is a really cool thing.
We also waited in a surprisingly long (and disorganized) line to get Sean Patrick Flanery to sign my Lone Hero DVD. It was totally worth it! Honestly, I felt a little bit bad for reminding SPF about this particular movie, since I'm sure it is not a career highlight for him. But I'd talked it over with Ma Noir and Sonia beforehand and we'd agreed that I could honestly say both "I was a fan of yours when you were Young Indiana Jones, so I was happy when you showed up in this movie" (true!) and also "it looked like a lot of fun to make" (also true!). So we finally get up to where he was (after some confusion wherein I actually kind of had no choice but to tell Norman Reedus that we weren't so much interested in his autograph--I'M SORRY, NORMAN REEDUS, I'M SURE YOU'RE A LOVELY MAN, I JUST DIDN'T WANT TO SPEND ANOTHER $20, and he was very cool about it), and I plunked the DVD down in front of him and he goes, while he's signing, "Can I just tell you that Lou Diamond Phillips is one of the coolest guys ever?" AWWWW. I... did not have that impression of Lou Diamond Phillips! But I guess I was wrong! So that was cute. And then we told him we were fans of Hugh Dillon's, and asked what it was like working with him. And he's like, "Who?" and then, after we clarified a bit, "Oh, the guy from the band!" HEE. "Yeah, he was great--he totally got me into that band." AWWWWWWWW. And then Ma Noir (I think) asked him if he liked riding in the tiny train, and he was like, "YES. I used to just ride that thing around at lunch, just sitting there, eating a sandwich [*mimes sandwich-eating*]." And we laughed, and he was like, "NO I'M SERIOUS. I loved that thing! It went all the way around the set!" HEEEE. So it was a tiny bit awkward but honestly he was SO NICE, and enthusiastic, and just seemed to generally be enjoying the ride (no pun intended), which is such a nice thing in a convention setting. I know that actors get really sick of conventions and I completely understand that, but it's always fun to talk to people who are in a place to embrace the experience, and Sean Patrick Flanery definitely seemed to be in that camp. So it was delightful! I have warm-fuzzy feelings about him now! It's hard not to like a guy who appreciates the joy of the tiny train!
AND Sonia was dressed up as (the most adorable) Wonder Girl (ever), so watching her get stopped for photos and pose with other adorably-dressed fans was ALSO really fun. So all in all it was a very successful Comicon experience!
And then yesterday morning I stopped to get coffee on the way to the zoo with sdwolfpup and the ridiculously adorable Puplet (Puplet LOVES THE ZOO, it is so cute! his little flaily arms! his excited monkey noises! ♥ ♥ ♥), and the barista--who's worked there for a couple of years, so I see her every month or two, though I'm by no means a regular--is just SO SWEET, and cheerful and friendly, and I know that's her job, but it still honestly makes my day every time I drive through there. So between that and the con, it was a weekend of small, enthusiastic moments of connection with near-strangers (interspersed with quality time with much-loved friends, of course, which is a gift beyond measure), and I was struck again by the power of that, just being interested in someone else, and having the confidence to reach out, even just for 10 seconds (I'm generally quite good at the interest part, but not so much at the confidence part). But what a lovely thing to be able to do for people; I'm resolved again to do more of it. For various reasons, I haven't been in a good reaching-out place for quite a while, and recently I kind of feel like I've found my center again; it's a good feeling, and I hope I can hold on to it.